Safari downloads reach 1 million. Is that a big deal?

Apple's Safari port to Windows enjoyed 1 million downloads in the first 48 …

When Safari for Windows was announced, I have to admit that I was curious. Being a Windows user at work, I was one of the many that downloaded the beta. It wasn't that I was unhappy with my current browser—quite the opposite: Firefox for Windows is fantabulous on so many levels. I just wanted to see what was going on. In all honesty, I don't even use Safari in OS X, so I wasn't expecting much regardless of Apple's claims of creating the fastest browser "EVAR@!@!"

Needless to say I wasn't very impressed, I quit using the newly downloaded browser as soon as it showed an ugly bug where it would crash after printing. The opinion here at the Orbiting HQ didn't differ much from person to person: everyone was unmoved by Apple's port.

Today Apple released a press release reporting that there were over 1 million people who downloaded the beta software in the first 48 hours. When you first see it, the number seems like a big deal (Apple's press release helps with that impression). But what if we look at the numbers in a historical context? If we compare this release to Mozilla's debut of Firefox 1.0 back in 2004, we see that Apple's 1 million in 48 hours fails in comparison to Mozilla's 2.5 million in the same period of time. One might argue that Firefox 1.0 was a final version, and Safari is merely a public beta, and that is a very valid argument. The numbers, however, still hold some value nonetheless. I'm inclined to think that by releasing a public beta of their browser, Apple may hurt their final download numbers. Early adopters may be turned off by bugs and interface issues that Ryan touched upon in his review, resulting in their return to Firefox.